Europas Grenzen

Europas Anderes

authored by

Gabi Kannenberg

Abstract

Europe’s Boundaries – Europe’s Other. This transdisciplinary paper draws a connection between Europe’s Boun- daries and Europe’s Other; its main focus lies on the development of the theory of European Law/European legal theory. As a starting point, the conceptual boundaries of liberal legal theory are carved out by means of close reading using the example of the German lineage of liberal theory from Kant to Habermas (part 1). This is comple- mented by a description of EU Law with its two levels (EU/member states) in the double context of the realms of perception of political theology and political economy (part 2). The approach of cultural legal theory with its standpoint of law enforce- ment is thereby enhanced by a bottom-up perspective, i. e. the perspective of the legal subject, and the application of radical theories. This evolves into an account of the three dimensions of law and simultaneously of European political thought (conservatism, liberalism and marxism, triangle CLM). Finally, ideology is described as the fourth dimension of law by means of developing a psychoanalytical critique of ideology drawing upon Lacan, Althusser and Žižek (part 3). The EU Charta of Fundamental Rights with its double invocation of the European legal subject (as EU citizen/citizen of a member state and as part of the workforce) together with the Area of freedom, justice and security as an „area without normative voids“ shape the European Lawscape, in which the enjoyment of the nation resp. the political is replaced by the enjoyment of the law. Emanating from the conceptual boundaries of Europe the refugee shapes up as the ideal Other of the European Community of law, whereas the Roma, the sans papiers and the poor/the economically dispensable, the „part without part“, turn out to be Europe’s real Other(s).

Organisation(s)

Faculty of Law

Type

Doctoral thesis

No. of pages

437

Publication date

2019

Publication status

Published

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.15488/4443 (Access: Open)